Feeding mechanism for printing presses



H. ODELL FEEDiNG MECHANISM FOR PRIENTING PRESSES Augf4, 1925. 1,548,425

Filed Jan. 15'; 1924 s Sheets- Sheet 1 Aug. 4, 1925. 1,548,425

H. ODELL FEEDING MECHANISM FOR PRINTING PRESSES Filed Jan. 15, 192A 5 Sheets-:Sheet 2 H. ODELL FEEDING MECHANISM FOR PRINTING PRESSES I Filed Jan. '15, 1924 3 sheetg shgot 3 Patented Aug. 4, 1925.

UNITED STATEe V a i I 1,548,425

PATENT QFFI-CE ARRY 01mm, or ESTO KEN' e slsm T was o l-E L C M:

nan-Y, or notrrsvrt n, nnrocxr, A ooRrO ATIQN or EnrrUcK ren ws MEC ANI M FOR remains reassess- Application filed January 15 1924, Serial No. 686,346

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY ODELL, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Prestonia, in the county of Jefferson and State of Kentucky, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Feeding Mechanism for Printing Presses, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to printing presses and has particular reference to an improved card feeding mechanism for power embossing presses, my purposes being to provide for the rapid feed of cards to a'press to the end of increasing the speed with which they may be printed or embossed, and to assure of the presentation of all cards to a press in the same accurate manner whereby ir regularities in the completed work are eliminated.

With the foregoing and other purposes in view, my invention consists in the novel features of construction, combination and arrangement of parts, as will' be hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying 'drawings, and defined in the appended claims.

In the drawings, wherein like characters of'reference denote corresponding parts in the different views Figure 1 is a perspective of a printing press showing the mechanism constituting my invention operatively connected therewith;

Fig. 2, a top plan of the card feeder;

Fig. 8, 211 section taken centrally through the card feeder;

"Fig. 1, an enlarged elevation of a portion of the press showing the driving connection between a movable part thereof and my improved mechanism;

Fig, 5, a section'on the line -5 of Fig. 4;and

6, an enlarged. plan, partly in section, of the locking melans for the card feeder.

For the purpose of illustrating the operation and the utility of the mechanism constituting my invention I have shown and ill dese i 'e he sa e as pp to p w embossing press Act a well known commercial type. I desire it understood, how ever, that the design of pressA is immatea sin e my me han y, y s gh changes in the arrangement ofits parts, be app ed to various types of presses and its met? t e i e and he bs' fiqia r su ts The mast sea t t t hly a n d 9 accruing therefrom will remain substantially unchanged. i

In applying my mechanism to the press A a pair of bearing blocks 10 and 11 are bolted or otherwise secured to the frame 12 of said press, and within these bearing blocks, directly in front of the depressible die printing mechanism illustrated generally at 13, is mounted a vertical shaft 14 which shaft is adapted to be rotated intermittently and at its upper end carries a ca-rd feeder 15 for presenting the cards to be printed beneath said die printing mechanism; i

The card feeder 15 consists of a base 16 secured in any suitable manner, as for instance by means of a; taper pin 17, to shaft 14- for rotation therewith, and affixed to said base, as for instance by means ofscrews 18, also for rotation with said shaft, is a horirontally disposed plate 19 provided in this instance with four run-ways 20, 21, 22 and 23, within each of which is arranged a slide 24. 4 i The run-ways 20, 21, 22 and 23 radiate from the plate 19 at intervals of 909 and the slides 24, which are radially movable through said run-ways, are guided in such movement by pairs of inturned flanges 25-25 rising from said plate, each pair of flanges forming a pair of grooves within which opposite edges of the respective slides operate, said flanges and grooves, while per mitting free radial movementof the slides, serving to hold them firmly against an other movements with respect to plate 19 as is apparent.

To the under face of each slide 24 is secured at lug 26 and engaged through each lug is a threaded shaft 27, said shafts in this instance being four in number, one for each slide, and being held against longitudinal movementby means of spaced collars thereon operating against opposite sides of lugs rising from the base 16 as shown at 28 in Figure 2 of thedra-wings. On the inner end of each shaft is afiixed a bevel gear 20 and meshing with said bevel gears is 'a master gear 30 by means of which an gears 29 may be rotatedinun'is'on thereby to rotate the shafts 27 in unison and,"because of the threaded connections of said shafts with the slides 24, simultaneously move said slides radially inward or ontward as desired.

on an upper end portion of shaft 14 that eattends through and above the base 16, and 1s provided with a squared boss 31 for en gagement within a similarly shaped recess in a knurled cap 32 which provides a hand grip for conveniently rotating the master gear to effect the aforesaid adjustments of the slides.

Thus, in view of the foregoing, it is) manlfest that when the shaft 14 is stationary, radial adjustments of the slides 24 wit-h respect to the base 16 and plate 19 may be effected as desired simply by turning the cap 32 to rotate the master gear and the respective shafts 27, while on the other hand, due to the fact that the base 16 and plate 19 are secured to the shaft 14, the slides will be turned with said shaft whenever the latter is rotated, but their radial adjustment as effected by means of the master gear will not be disturbed during such rotation.

On each slide 24 is secured a pair of clips 33 by means of which the cards to be printed are retained thereon during rotation of the slides with the shaft 14, and also carried by each slide is a fixed stop or stops 34 and an adjustable stop 35, the former to determine the position of the inner edge of each card in its engaged position with a slide, and the latter, which are adjustable transversely of the slides, to determine the position'of the adjacent edges of the cards in their engaged position with the slides.

Thus far the operation of my-mechanism is apparent and as follows: Assuming the shaft 14 to be rotating intermittently, stopping momentarily'at the end of each ninety degrees of rotation, itis apparent that the slides 24 are disposed successively in front of the die printing mechanism 13, and that with the slides and stops properly adjusted as aforementioned, cards fed by an operator to the slides just before the same are moved in front of the die printing mechanism, will be presented beneath the die at regular intervals, it being understood, of course, that the rotation of shaft 14 is so timed with respect to the die printing mechanism that the die will be depressed immediately following stoppage of a slide 24 in position to dispose a card operatively with respect thereto.

In order that shaft 14 may be rotated intermittently it has fixed thereto a bevel gear 36 that, meshes with a similar gear37 fixed on a short shaft mounted in a bearing block 38 secured to the frame 12, said short shaft also having fixed thereto a ratchet wheel'39 with which engages a pawl 40 on a plate 41that is connected'by a rod 42 with a lever arm 43 on a rocker shaft 44 constituting apart of the press A. e

'The operation is as follows: As shaft 44 rocks during operation of the press A, its

7 movement is transmitted through rod 42 to the ratchet 49 and gears 36, 37 thereby intermittently rotating shaft 14, the arrangement of the parts being such that a rotary movement of ninety degrees is imparted to said shaft 14 following each depression and subsequent elevation of the die of the printing mechanism 13.

To hold the shaft 14 against rotation during each printing operation said shaft has fixed thereto a disk 45 provided with four evenly spaced notches 46 in the periphery thereof, one for each slide 24, and the frame 12 has secured thereto a block 47 within which operates a plunger 48 normally pressed by a spring 49 against the periphery of the disk 45 whereby the notches in the latter are successively engaged by said plunger and the shaft 14 thus held from rotating, the plunger being disengaged from the notches by the operating force of the mechanism.

Preferably the bolt or bolts that secure the block 47 to the frame 12 pass through a slot or slots in said block, as shown in Figure 1 of the drawings, so that the plunger may be adjusted towards and from the disk 45 to vary the force with which it engages the notches 46 and with which it acts to hold the shaft 14 against rotation.

From the foregoing description considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, it is believed that the construction operation and advantages of my improvements will be clearly understood. It is desired to point out, however, that various changes and desirable additions may be made in and to the arrangement shown within the spirit and scope of my invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim 1. Feeding mechanism for printing presses comprising a rotatable shaft, a plurality of article carrying members rotatable with said shaft and adjustable with respect thereto, and means for adjusting a plurality of said members simultaneously.

2. Feeding mechanism for printing presses comprising a rotatable shaft, a plurality of article carrying members bodily rotatable with said shaft and radially adjustable with respect thereto, and a single means for adjusting all of said members simultaneously.

8. Feeding mechanism for printing presses comprising a rotatable shaft, an article carrying member rotatable with said shaft and radially adjustable with respect thereto, a

fixed stop on said" member to determine the position of one edge of an article with re spect thereto, and an adjustable stop on said member to determine the position of an adjacent edge of an article with respect thereto. i

4. Feeding mechanism for printin presses comprising an intermittently rotatab e shaft, operating means for said shaft, article carrying means rotatable with said shaft, and

yieldable means for locking said shaft against rotation, said yieldable locking means being adapted to be overcome by the force of the means for operating said shaft.

5. Feeding mechanism for printing presses comprising an intermittently rotatable shaft, article carrying means rotatable with said shaft, and means for locking said shaft against rotation during the intervals be tween its intermittent rotations comprising a notched disk fixed to said shaft and a housing carrying a spring pressed plunger engageable within the notches of said disk, said housing being adjustable towards and away from said disk.

6. Feeding mechanism for printing presses comprising a rotatable shaft, a plate fixed to said shaft for rotation therewith, a plurality of article carrying slides carried by said plate, a plurality of threaded shafts having threaded engagement, respectively, with said slides, and means for rotating said threaded shafts simultaneously thereby to effect simultaneous adjustments of said slides.

7. Feeding mechanism for printing presses comprising a rotatable shaft, a plate fixed to said shaft for rotation therewith, a plurality of article carrying slides carried by said plate and adjustable thereon radially with respect to said shaft, a plurality of threaded shafts having threaded engagement, respectively. with said slides, a gear on each threaded shaft, and a master gear meshing with all of the gears on said threaded shafts whereby the latter may be rotated simultaneously thereby to affect simultaneous adjustments of said slides.

8. Feeding mechanism for printing presses including a plurality of article carriers radiating from and adjustable towards and away from a common center, and means con necting a plurality of said carriers for adjusting them simultaneously.

9. Feeding mechanism for printing presses including a plurality of article carriers adjustable towards and away from each other, and means between said carriers for so adjusting them equal amounts simultaneously.

10. Feeding mechanism for printing presses comprising a rotatable shaft, a plate fixed to said shaft for rotation therewith, a plurality of article carriers slidable on said plate radially with respect to said shaft, and means embodying a screw individual to each carrier and a gear common to each screw for-sliding said plates equal amounts simultaneously.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature.

HARRY ODELL. 

